Moving with the times


Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.


Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.


Findings
This paper provided a systematic review on digital badges and their relevant within the academic field and in the workplace.


Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.


THE VISION FESTIVAL celebrated 26 years with eight days of in person performances, a conference and films, in partnership with Roulette Intermedium, The Clemente and Anthology Film Archives. We presented the best of African-American, multicultural, multi-discipline FreeJazz arts by bringing together practitioners of music, poetry, movement and visual art who embrace improvisation as an aesthetic and means of collaboration.

Vision Festival 26 | A Light In Darkness
June 19 to 26, 2022 At Roulette, Brooklyn, and The Clemente, LES, NYC

Conference: Legacies of Black Creative Music -A Path Towards Justice, June 20, 2022
This year's conference was free to attend both at The Clemente in-person and streamed, presenting three panels: A Legacy of Self-Determination, Black Music | White Business: The influence of institutions in Jazz/FreeJazz and Freedom & Spirituality.
Featuring a host of artists and scholars, the conference effectively pushed the conversation forward on the role of creative improvised music in unifying communities and activist movements. This event was a collaboration with Rutgers University with support from the University of Pittsburgh. TO KICK OFF the Vision LIfeTime Achievement celebration of these great elder musicians, visual artists, and thinkers, we produced and streamed a special AFA Salon featuring both artists in conversation and solo performance. In addition to individual interviews, the Salon included footage of Oliver Lake at his home presenting his visual art, and an AFA hosted conversation with the two artists together. A NEW ORGANIC STRATEGY for social media saw major increases in the organic reach of our social media messages on two major platforms, Facebook and Instagram. Leveraging in-platform amplification mechanisms resulted in a 73% YoY increase in the reach of Facebook posts and 760% YoY increase in the reach of Instagram posts, compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year.

PROGRAMS 2021 -2022
The brand awareness and engagement driven by these posts resulted in improved traffic to event pages in this fiscal year with a 39% YoY increase of unique traffic to the Vision Festival landing page, and a 45% increase in unique traffic to the Support AFA page which hosts the online donation module.
Future plans include testing new platforms to activate younger audiences (Tik Tok) and developing a conservative paid social strategy to build upon organic growth in this fiscal year. Additionally, Screening Vision archives on YouTube showed steady organic growth YoY, with more than 10% increased total views and more than 30% new subscribers.

Music Is Mine Education
With new and ongoing activities and partnerships, Arts for Art's Music is Mine (MiM) education program is serving students in more locations.
MiM began a new partnership with Urban Assembly School of Music and Art (UAMA), hosting twice monthly music workshops for students. We also presented eight improvising ensembles to bring insight into the lives and methods of professional artists. Each band invited students to participate through performance and conversation.
At PS20, MiM held a double assembly (interactive lecture demonstration), reaching majority Black, Latinx and Asian students. Our tradition of free public workshops continued at Children's Magical Garden and First Street Green in the Fall. MiM also provided 40 online 1-to-1 lessons, which were essential for reconnecting with students before COVID-19 in-person restrictions lifted. ARTS FOR ART was founded by artists to address the lack of support for FreeJazz in general and specifically FreeJazz created and performed by African-Americans. For 27 years, we have created opportunities for artists of color to perform on an international stage, historically with over 60% represention. Last year our programs consisted of 61% POC artists and 26% female artists. We are also working to further diversify our board, staff and advisory board to better represent the community of artists that we serve, further strengthening our commitment to the ideals of diversity, equity, excellence, self-determination and community.

Diversity
*AFA recognizes that gender is a nonbinary spectrum. However as we do not collect selfidentified gender data on either performers or attendees, we find the common use of "woman, man, or gender non-conforming" useful in this context. AFA keeps growing our community of innovative musicians, dancers, poets and visual artists with a public that cares about culture and justice.

Appearances by
The Art is built on democratic community ideals. Its disciplined intensity speaks of equity, justice, and freedom. So AFA has worked to create an inclusive, diverse and equitable space in which the artists, and the public we serve, can thrive.
Community: Diversity of race, age, and gender define AFA's creative improvising community. AFA creates opportunities for diverse artists to meet, share ideas and perform. AFA creates events that encourage artists and audiences to interact.
Justice, Diversity, Inclusion, Respect: AFA provides safe spaces for artists to experiment, develop and excel creatively. AFA respects artists by ensuring fair compensation, and audiences by ensuring economic access to programs and performances. AFA organizes artists' efforts to respond to contemporary social issues. AFA curates for diversity and inclusion.
Improvisation: Improvisation is the sophisticated integration of all aspects of creation in real time. AFA curates artists who have developed their own unique improvisational vocabulary and voice. This highly developed form is at the core of AFA's mission. It is also an element of AFA's organizational culture wherein AFA relies upon its tenets by operating flexibly in order to respond to opportunities as they arise.
Commitment: AFA respects artists' commitment to their life's work, and reflects that commitment by seeking and supporting new works, audiences and partnerships that help artists sustain creative and professional growth